Target Loses $9 Billion in 1 Week After Firestorm Over LGBTQ-Pride Products
Retail giant Target began advertising gay pride products in early May including items for transgender women. Following intense pushback and billions of dollars in losses, the company has decided to remove some of the items from stores. This comes as other businesses expand promotions and displays in association with the June Pride month.
From an Adidas ad showcasing a biological man in a women's swimsuit to Target's items featuring slogans like "Live Laugh Lesbian" and "Cheers Queers", and pride clothing for babies and children, the marketing of pride products abounds.
Pride month merchandise is displayed at the front of a Target store in Hackensack, N.J., May 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
"People always say don't push your agenda on people. Don't push your beliefs on people - but this ain't pushing your beliefs on people?" asked a TikTok user by the name of Defender of the Gospel. "They would say this is just for the adults. Baby clothes, kid's clothes - this agenda is for everybody. Wakeup."
Ex-gay Hollywood set and fashion designer Becket Cook, who is now a devout Christian, calls the widespread approval of LGBTQ ideology part of an overall activist strategy.
"Gay pride used to be one day a year and then it became a month and now basically it's all year round," Cook said during an interview with CBN News.
Pride month merchandise is displayed at a Target store, May 24, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
He singles out a book called, After the Ball: How America will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in 90's as proof of the coordinated gay agenda to undermine Christianity and traditional American family values.
"We're inundated with TV shows, movies, media, social media," Cook told CBN News. "The 90's was really the decade where it really took off with Will and Grace with Sex in the City that had gay characters in it. After decades of that happening and being inundated with that it's no wonder that the culture, it's been completely normalized in the culture."
As the culture has been flooded with pro-transgender message in recent years, especially as it relates to children, Cook explains it is because of the anti-Christian age we now live in.
"There's a very strong anti-Christian sentiment in the culture," he said. "So, one way to kind of get at Christians is to subvert God's original design for male and female. It's almost like this revenge, 'Let's transgress as much as we can because we hate Christians so much. We hate God.' It's not so much as we hate Christians, 'We hate God so much that we're going to be as transgressive and subversive as we possibly can.' The trans movement among kids is the most extreme version of that," said Cook.
Meanwhile, many are pushing back against the normalization LGBTQ and transgender ideals.
Thousands are now boycotting Target, forcing the chain to remove some pride merchandise from store shelves and in some locations moving displays from the front of stores to the back.
Pride month merchandise is displayed at the front of a Target store in Hackensack, N.J., May 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
In a statement, the company cited safety concerns as the reason for their actions.
"Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work," the statement said. "Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior."
However, as of Tuesday, Target stock dropped 12 percent, a loss of $9 billion dollars in market value since last week.
Pride month merchandise is displayed at a Target store, May 24, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Minister Nichol Collins lived as a lesbian for 20 years. She says in a culture that embraces LGBTQ ideals, Christians can still make a difference. She runs a Christian clothing line called Globeshakers which features the rainbow.
"The Lord showed me a vision," Collins said in an interview with CBN News. "He showed me a hand clutching the rainbow in the clouds and the words in scripted, 'Take Back the Rainbow'."
As the battle over Pride month and other issues continues, many stress that violence is never the answer and should be condemned. Collins encourages believers to instead pray earnestly for the LGBTQ community.
"God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. He died for the homosexual. He died for the transgender. He died for the pedophile and all those things. But that's why we must be born again," Collins explained. "So, I think that the church just needs to be that healer. We've got to show love without compromising."
Cook agrees.
"I think every day during Pride month we should all as Christians be praying for people to get saved out of that life just like God did with me," said Cook.
"We shouldn't be shocked, alarmed or intimidated by this movement," added Collins. "We can't become desensitized and begin to normalize is lifestyle. We've gotta stick to our convictions. We've gotta be bold in this hour and arise as intercessors to pray against this movement because the weapons of our warfare they're not carnal but mighty through God to pulling down strongholds. So, we can't allow the world to dictate to the church what sin is," she said.
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